Karnataka lynching: Police arrest around 30, including WhatsApp group owner

The body of Azam, who was working with Google, was brought to the city late Saturday and was buried at a graveyard near his house. The three other survivors in the incident, Noor Mohd, Mohd Salman and Mohd Salham-eid-al-Kubaisi, a Qatari national, are undergoing treatment after being grievously injured in the mob attack.

His brother Mohammad Akram, also a techie, urged the Telangana government to take up the issue with the Karnataka government for a proper investigations into the incident. The villagers suspected them to be child lifters and attacked them.

Five people were recently killed in North Maharashtra's Dhule district over child-lifting rumours on social media. "The guilty should be punished so that no other innocent loses his life in this manner". Relatives of Azam say they stopped at a hamlet and were taking pictures.

The police have arrested three WhatsApp administrators who circulated the photos and messages that the four men were child kidnappers along with 30 people who were part of the mob.

"One of them had bought chocolates from Qatar and tried to offer it to the children as a token of affection", Bidar deputy police chief V. N. Patil told AFP.

Also, the vehicle that the group was travelling in was without a number plate, fuelling their suspicion.

However, few residents of the hamlet alerted people of nearby village Murki over their mobile phones.

The video of the mob violence, which was aired by Indian broadcasters, showed the mob carrying sticks and beating the men as police pleaded for them to stop.

Their auto flipped after hitting a roadblock placed by the angry mob before they were dragged out of the vehicle and beaten with sticks and stones. When the men tried to flee, their vehicle jumped into a gorge, causing the death of one among them.

According to a report in the Indian Express, four of them left Hyderabad on Friday morning and were on their way to Bidar where they met a relative and attended a social function.

Azam died on the spot. She said two police personnel, who rushed to the spot on coming to know about the incident, were helpless. The young man wants the governments to take some serious action to stop lynching over rumours being spread through WhatsApp. After that villagers gathered, an argument started which progressed to full-blown scuffle.